Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work: A Study in Performance Practice [Hardcover]

Kevin Bazzana (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 1997

This book is a detailed study of the great Canadian pianist, broadcaster, writer, and composer Glenn Gould (1932-82). While looking primarily on his performances, it also situates his work and thought more broadly within relevant musical, cultural, intellectual, and historical contexts. It incorporates most of the existing primary and secondary literature on Gould, as well as many ideas, interpretations, and perspectives that have never before been discussed. It also incorporates ideas from a wide range of literature, both musical and otherwise, and draws from unparalleled access to the Glenn Gould Papers in the National Library of Canada. The book offers a more comprehensive, balanced, and thoroughly researched portrait of Gould as pianist and interpreter than any previous volume in the Gould literature.

Following an introduction that summarizes Gould's career and the posthumous interest in him, the book divides into two parts. Part 1, "Premises," focuses on the intellectual and aesthetic ideas that informed his performances, and draws on literature from many fields, including music history and aesthetics, cultural history, the history of performance practice, theatre, literary criticism, and music analysis. Part 2, "Practices," focuses in detail on Gould the pianist, illuminating important features of his style through prose description and critical analysis, and including graphic musical examples and plates.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Not another biographical tribute, this is instead a detailed critical study of Gould the musical interpreter, complete with a CD of pertinent recordings. Examining recorded performances?occasionally note by note?the author analyzes Gould's interpretations first in light of their faithfulness to the printed score and then in a historical and aesthetic context. There are copious references to details in the printed musical examples and to the 26 excerpts on the CD. This approach is unique, presenting a thought-provoking view of music through a study of one of the most influential artists of our century, but it is not for the casual reader. For large academic and special collections.?Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The best account so far of his life: lucid, balanced, intelligent, and wide-ranging."-- Michael Kimmelman, New York Review of Books

"Kevin Bazzana, in his fine new book...explore[s], with rare acuity, Gould's artistic philosophies and the manner in which they were put into practice....Bazzana examines Gould's contradictions with a judicious mixture of sympathy and rigor."--Washington Post Book World

"Exemplifying often from Gould's recordings, Bazzana artfully describes each of Gould's techniques and how he used it to achieve his unique performance style. Beyond that, he helps in listening for the inner structures of music and appreciating a composer's art when others perform it."--Booklist

"...a detailed critical study of Gould the musical interpreter, complete with a CD of pertinent recordings....a thought-provoking view of music through a study of one of the most influential artists of our century..."--Library Journal

"Bezzana examines Gould's contradictions with a judicious mixture of sympathy and rigor. His book may be set beside Geoffrey Payzant's Glenn Gould: Music and Mind, Peter Ostwald's Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius and the pianist's own writings as a valuable complement to Gould's recording legacy."--Book World

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198166567
• ISBN-13: 978-0198166566
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,639,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( G ) > Gould, Glenn

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and insightful, June 6, 2000

By 

"lexo-2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work: A Study in Performance Practice (Hardcover)

Kevin Bazzana has written a monograph on the work of Glenn Gould that manages to combine deep sympathy with Gould's ideas and performance practice with a critical attitude to Gould's more bizarre artistic choices.

He sets out his position early on, when he states that "I do not write book-length studies of artists I do not greatly admire". There's no doubt that Bazzana knows Gould's recordings and writings as well as anyone, and he's passionately enthusiastic about the more convincing aspects of Gould's genius. (I personally am a huge Gould fan as well, even though I have, shall we say, a bone to pick with Gould's preference for Petula Clark over The Beatles.) A fair amount of the book is taken up with fairly (but not too) technical analyses of Gould performances, pointing out where Gould ignored score markings if he felt that they were irrelevant to his own interpretation of the music, etc., but Bazzana also makes a good case for Gould's decisions in this regard; when the music in question was something that Gould actually admired, the practical results of his theoretically questionable decisions are often hard to argue with. When it was something he didn't especially admire, such as the Mozart piano sonatas, the results tend to make sense only in terms of Gould's aesthetic. (On the enclosed CD, Bazzana includes the third movement from the C Major sonata to prove his point; Gould takes it at a preposterously fast lick, and while the result is frankly hilarious, making Mozart sound like speeded-up cartoon music, it's not exactly what we imagine Mozart intended the piece to mean.)

Bazzana is at his most critical about Gould's writings, which he considers to be the work of a brilliant but irresponsible amateur (bit of academic snobbery here, perhaps). He tries to defend them on the grounds that composers - and artists generally - are entitled to have perverse likes and dislikes in order to bolster up their own self-confidence (Wagner hated Brahms' work, and it was fairly mutual), but you can tell that he wishes that Gould-the-writer had been a bit less facetious and a bit more good-mannered. It's a tough argument to answer, but I quite like Gould's sillier flights of verbal fancy, even if I know in my heart that they aren't on the same level as his recording of the Contrapunctus XV from Art of the Fugue (to name but one example).

The book is also very good about the relationship between creative and interpretative artists in general. In fact, it's a superb demonstration of why Gould is much more than just a brilliant oddball. Artists in any field can learn a lot from it. The free CD is not just a bonus but essential to Bazzana's thesis. A monograph on classical music for people who don't normally like monographs on classical music.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book made me love Gould's music even more., October 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work: A Study in Performance Practice (Hardcover)

It is no doubt that Glenn Gould is at his best as a pianist, while he is also known as a writer, TV and radio producer, composer, conductor and maybe philosopher. So the author, Kevin Bazzana focuses on Gould as a pianist and his performances in this book.

This book is divided into two parts. In the first part, Premisses, Bazzana examines Gould's approach towards music and performance as an artist. An example here is his argument on why Gould published the complete sonatas by Mozart but not those by Haydn despite the known fact that Gould appreciated Haydn's music much more than Mozart's. In the second part, Practices, he analyses Gould's performance in depth. He rationalizes why Gould chose to play a particular piece in a specific manner. For example, Bazzana points out Gould's usage of a peculiar arpeggio, which he calls "bordered" arpeggio, in certain pieces, and explains what effects it gives to the entire piece. I had noticed that Gould often arpeggiates instead of playing a chord as written, but did not realize how it is integrated into the structure of the music. This book enlightened me in many ways and helped me enjoy/appreciate Gould's music even more.

This book is derived from Bazzana's Ph.D. thesis, which is based on enormous research and thorough listening to Gould's recordings. The accompanying CD shows points of analyses made by the author.

This book may not be for everyone due to its highly specialized subject. But I strongly recommend this book to pianists at all levels and every Gould fan, especially if he/she listens to his music with the music score in hand.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific book about performance, November 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work: A Study in Performance Practice (Hardcover)

I though Bazzana did an exceptional job. This is a must for musicians around the world. It is descriptive and analytical, pianists do not want to miss this one.

The CD which complements the book is great for analytical analysis of his performances. A terrific compilation of recorded material.